It was announced earlier this week that a significant group of prominent Bitcoin companies, individuals and institutions have united in a “Blockchain Alliance.” This alliance will serve as a resource for law enforcement to help combat criminal activity involving bitcoin and the blockchain, and has so far engaged with the Department of Justice (including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service), the U.S. Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

However, the Blockchain Alliance was not welcomed by the entire community.

One of the fiercest opponents of the initiative has been Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director Bruce Fenton. Shortly after the Blockchain Alliance was announced, Fenton took to Internetforums and Twitter to voice his concern about the industry’s outreach to law enforcement.

Speaking toBitcoin Magazine , Fenton explained why:

Bitcoin's relative anonymity has obviously led to it being used for criminal purposes. Don't you consider that a problem that needs solving?

First off, I challenge the notion that the American government has an absolute and irrefutable right to know all financial information and private records of every person within our borders. This is a relatively new idea, and it's a very bad one. Some things are just not their business, and the fact that I'm a little afraid to say that out loud shows how sad our current state is.

As for criminal activity, note that something being a crime is not always a measure of morality. In some countries right now being gay is a criminal act. Even in the United States we once had segregation mandated by law. “Aiding a runaway slave” was once a crime... Would we have wanted to “partner with law enforcement” to track the blockchain for purchases made by escaped slaves?

Today we have laws related to asset forfeiture and federal prosecution of crimes which voters in states decided to decriminalize. These are actions by law enforcement that many citizens feel are immoral.

But Bitcoin canalso be used for criminal purposes that we probably all agree are undesirable. Extortion comes to mind.

Sure, Bitcoin makes some bad things easier to do -- just as do shoes, phones and the Internet. But it's unwise to punish technology and innovation rather than the actual harmful actors.

The Blockchain Alliance is established exactly to help law enforcers make this distinction...

But taking care of these bad actors is the responsibility of the law enforcers, not that of the innovations or the industry. Cars make it far easier for criminals to escape than by foot, but the technology of the motor vehicle and its industry has no responsibility for this.

The job of innovators is to innovate, not to catch those whom the state deems criminal. The job of law enforcement is to deal with new technology as best they can without harming or interfering in the lives of peaceful people who have harmed no other.

The Blockchain Alliance has no intention to conduct blockchain analysis, blacklisting, or anything like that. It's just a forum where law enforcement can ask questions. Why do you consider this such a big deal?

Would the Blockchain Alliance be willing to put in writing a set of conditions under which they would break off ties with law enforcement? If not, then their stated intent is worthless.

Essentially every time any industry has had experiences with government which turned out to be destructive, it started with good intent. The Bitcoin community's engagement with the New York Department of Financial Services, and the resulting BitLicense, is actually a good example of that.

These government organizations have poor track records and continually seek to expand authority. We even have blatant violations of the Constitution such as those of the NSA exposed by Edward Snowden. The very same agencies who seek to capture Snowden are now partners of the Blockchain Alliance...

Law enforcement will, eventually, figure Bitcoin out with or without the Bitcoin Alliance. Why not help them in the process, and build up some goodwill among regulators?

The job of law enforcement is not to figure new things out, not to be our friend, not to determine right or wrong, nor even to craft new laws or listen to logic -- but to follow orders. Even if these orders flow from protectionist laws created by corrupt bureaucrats. And even if the banks and other special interests push for laws giving them a further competitive advantage over Bitcoin.

What about Bitcoin's image problem? Bitcoin is often seen as the currency for criminals, at least among many regulators...

We seem to forget that this is our country. The regulators are supposed to work for us. I challenge the notion that they are “serving the public” here, unless they can produce evidence that a large number of public citizens are concerned about Bitcoin technology. They aren't. No college students and grandmothers are lining up outside the doors of elected officials telling them that something must be done about “the scary blockchain.” Citizens are much more concerned about jobs, innovation and a competitive economy.

I believe we should first and foremost educate the public. Aside from educating citizens, we can also spend some effort educating lawmakers, preferably elected ones with some accountability rather than the unelected (Benjamin) Lawsky types.

But most importantly, we should take a page from the playbook of Uber and build something that's loved by millions... then when the fat wrinkled hands of bureaucrats are raised with a signal to stop, the public collectively shrugs and ignores them.

As Bitcoin becomes more popular, not in the least among criminals, the trend of more and stricter regulation will probably continue. If you care about privacy, fungibility, censorship resistance, and these sorts of things, wouldn't it make sense to focus on protocol-level solutions, rather than to fight regulation and law enforcement?

Definitely. The ultimate solutions are those of a technical nature. My goal in speaking about this is not to fight law enforcement or even regulation... but to simply question why it could make sense to work so hard to help law enforcement with a dubious mission.

I respect the members of that group a lot, many are good friends. I hope I'm wrong and it turns out great. Meanwhile, let's all work together to build something amazing that changes our world for the better.

In an attempt to further decrease energy costs and its impact on the environment, BitFury announced that it was launching the world’s largest two-phase immersion cooling (2PIC) project at its new data center in the Republic of Georgia.

By using the technology from Allied Control, bought in January, and the Novec 7100 Engineered Fluid from industrial giant 3M, the company is hoping to optimize its operations and make them more green. The firm intends on using 3M’s fluid to cool more than 40 megawatts of processing power.

“The maintenance cost of traditional low-cost air cooling systems is quite high compared to immersion cooling, and it is very problematic to use low-cost air cooling systems in the areas with hot weather, it becomes very costly,” said Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine.

Vavilov explained that the utilization of immersion cooling allows for a reduction in maintenance costs. Further, it opens up the possibility of the company launching mining operations in parts of the world that would otherwise not provide efficient cooling.

“In addition, we are able to deploy it in the areas with hot weather climate which opens possibility to operate literally in any location in the world. Also, for chips, this fluid is ideal exploitation environment and it allows to run them with maximum possible efficiency that just cannot be achieved using low-cost air-cooled systems,” he explained.

2PIC works by placing hardware in a specially designed tank with a liquid coolant such as the Novec 7100. What makes this fluid particularly useful is that it has a low boiling point, which means that as it heats, it starts to evaporate much more quickly. That pulls the heat away from the hardware in the device, allowing them to operate at a higher rate for much longer. When the vapor hits a water-cooled condenser coil, it becomes a fluid again and falls back into the tank, thus reducing the amount of fluid loss significantly.

“One of the primary limitations for computer performance is the thermal environment. Two-phase immersion cooling with Novec fluids provides tight coupling between device temperatures and the fluid boiling temperature. This means that these devices operate in a narrower temperature band,” explained Michael Garceau, 3M Business Development Manager, Data Center Markets, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “This is true not just for the processors, but for the circuits and devices delivering power to them. This, in turn, allows the hardware to be driven harder on average than would be possible in air and “overclocked” as is often done in the most profitable early stages of a mining deployment.”

Garceau also explained that because these 2PIC-specific boards don’t require heat sinks and cold plates, the processing hardware can be more densely packed with the 2PIC boards. This enables improved overclocking capacity.

“500-watt ASICs have been successfully overclocked to well over 750 watts. 2PIC with a Novec fluid will enable BitFury to lower operational costs by allowing them to run ASICs more efficiently,” Garceau explained.

The Environment is Key for BitFury

According to Garceau, “The streamlined system can deliver as much as 95 percent cooling energy savings with minimal fluid loss.” The cost of cooling hardware is an additional expense that many miners don’t consider when first starting out. Big scale fans require electricity.

“Green transaction processing is a significant and important part of our business strategy. With our acquisition of Allied Control, we have been able not only to utilize renewable energy sources like hydropower in our datacenter located in the Republic of Georgia, but also achieve a very energy-efficient cooling despite hot daytime temperatures,” explained Vavilov.

The NovecTMEngineered Fluids are nonflammable, have zero ozone depletion potential, have a low global warming potential, are Hazardous Air Pollutant-free, and are U.S. EPA SNAP-approved. And because the majority of the fluid condenses and drops back into the tank, replenishment isn’t needed for multiple hardware generations.

All told, BitFury is focused on delivering blockchain transaction processing in an efficient and green environment.

“We strive to ensure low carbon print and high efficiency of all our operations and already rely on renewable energy – thermal and hydropower – for all our operations,” Vavilov said. “We are also in the process of developing low-cost wind turbine technology that will provide another affordable and effective energy solution. We plan that by next year our data centers will be powered by the low-cost renewable energy generated by our new wind turbines. This will allow to further significantly lower our electricity cost and secure a long-term access to cheap electricity on a predictable basis.”

With electricity being the primary outlier that separates the profitable miners from the unprofitable, taking control of the supply of that power ensures that BitFury can remain profitable while also doing its part to reduce the significant carbon footprint found in bitcoin mining.

Jacob Donnelly is a full-time product manager and freelance journalist covering stocks, business and bitcoin. He runs a weekly digital currency and blockchain newsletter called Crypto Brief.

Biohacker Patric Lanhed has pulled off a neat trick. Only, it’s more than a gimmick. While sending payment of 1 Euro worth of Bitcoin from one wallet to another, the authentication for the transfer is embedded in a chip for the NFC-key transfer. The chip, is implanted into Patric’s hand, with the secret key to his Bitcoin wallet under his skin. With this established, a proof-of-concept video (below) shows Patric Lanhed and his acquaintance Juanjo Tara – a firmware engineer at Arduino, demonstrate a successful bitcoin payment from one digital wallet to another. The transaction they claim - is the […]

The price of bitcoin continues to rise, led primarily by the exchanges in China, which have, oftentimes, been trading at a premium of $10/BTC higher than the other major exchanges around the world. With China driving such an increase in the bitcoin price, many have been speculating that it could be driven by capital controls.

In China, the law stipulates that individuals cannot send more than the equivalent of $50,000 out of the country in a year. To get around this, individuals have hired smugglers to get cash out of the country, bought extremely expensive real estate in cities like New York and London, and even set up businesses in other countries with the goal of overpaying for inventory from China. All of this just to get money out of the country.

According to pseudonymous blogger Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge , the primary driver has been the Chinese purchasing bitcoin as a way of getting around capital controls.

“If a few hundred million Chinese decide that the time has come to use bitcoin as the capital controls bypassing currency of choice … sit back and watch as we witness the second coming of the bitcoin bubble,” he wrote in a recent blog post .

But is this, in fact, what is occurring?

According to Bobby Lee, the Founder and CEO of BTCC, while a hedge against capital controls is certainly a use case for bitcoin, it’s not what is driving this run up.

“I can tell you, being on the ground with the bitcoin exchange in China, I can guestimate that the vast majority of trading volume is not for that reason. The reality is, there are many loopholes around the capital controls. For the most part, it’s not a strict, strict capital controls,” he explained in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “If you look at countries like Myanmar and Argentina, which have very strict capital controls, you’ll have the price of bitcoin to USD [U.S. dollars] is much greater.”

Jack Liu, head of international at OKCoin, also disagreed with the notion that it had anything to do with capital controls. In an email to Bitcoin Magazine , he said, “I don't think so. It's speculation.”

Leon Li, CEO of Huobi, said in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, “to be clear, it’s not about capital controls.”

BTCC, OKCoin, and Huobi are the three biggest exchanges in China. All three don’t see a fear of capital controls driving the recent run-up of the price of bitcoin.

If it’s not capital controls, what is it?

It’s About Perception

“Over the last two months, we’ve seen a steady increase in bitcoin activity and bitcoin volumes and price appreciation. The reason this price has happened is because of renewed interest,” Lee explained. “All the bad news has come out over the past year and a half, and now it’s over.”

Lee walked through a list of the bad news that held bitcoin back: Mt. Gox imploding, the Chinese government offering ambiguous opinions on bitcoin, and the Silk Road bitcoin being sold en masse. “We’ve been in a bear market for the past 18 months,” he said.

And with that bear market came the need for miners to liquidate more of their bitcoin than normal because they didn’t know what the future price would be, Lee explained. “There’s a constant selling pressured caused by bitcoin miners.”

“The price is recovering on a rebound after several months in a narrow range. Some Chinese traders are expressing a view on the CNY exchange rate after the last devaluation, and you have interest by mainland speculators to move to other assets after the stock market fallout,” Liu of OKCoin said to Bitcoin Magazine.

What Lee does believe is that there is only one reason that the price of bitcoin is going up:

“It’s mostly new users,” he said, referring to who was signing up for the site during this recent run-up in price. “Bitcoin price, if I may be bold, has been going up in the recent years for only one reason: more usage, more acceptance and more awareness. When bitcoin is in more hands, the price naturally goes up. It’s the law of scarcity.”

Li of Huobi believes that there are a multitude of reasons driving the price higher. He touched on the recent regulatory environment with the CFTC saying bitcoin was a commodity and, in Europe, the courts saying that it was exempt from VAT.

“More financial institutions entered this industry,” he said, “such as bitcoin-based ETN and ETF were founded in Europe. Organizations and individuals involved more in bitcoin market as the policy and funding is becoming in favor of bitcoin.”

But Li also offered some negative reasons in China that might support the recent rise.

“Finance industry is developing rapidly in China during recent years, however, there still exists a distance in terms of trading mechanisms compared to the developed countries, which hindered the small and medium-sized investors from enjoying convenient services and trades," he said. "Chinese banking industry is still charging high transaction fees despite the fact that we’re living in the Internet Age.”

Nonetheless, bitcoin is rising, and China is leading the pack. Whether this run will last for only a short while or this is the beginning of another bull run, no one is certain. But the energy within the community is certainly more positive, this run-up encouraging more people to talk about bitcoin.

And as Lee said, as more people become aware of bitcoin, more people will use it, and that alone will drive the price up.

Jacob Donnelly is a full-time product manager and freelance journalist covering stocks, business and bitcoin. He runs a weekly digital currency and blockchain newsletter called Crypto Brief.

Strap in, friends, bitcoin is back. After spending most of the year in something approaching the doldrums, the cryptocurrency is enjoying a strong price rally, pushing it to its highest value of 2015. Of course, trading for around $320 per coin is still a mere fraction of its former heights. But at the same time, if you picked up some bitcoin when it dipped below $200 earlier this year, the… Read More

The Bitfilm Festival, an annual film festival about all things Bitcoin and Blockchain and spanning multiple cities around the world is due to kick-off tomorrow, October 31 in Berlin, Germany. The first global film festival to showcase films exclusively related to Bitcoin and Blockchain will have its second annual event start in Berlin tomorrow. The film festival will then roll around to more than a dozen cities around the world where local communities of Bitcoin enthusiasts will organize the event in their respective cities. The final pit stop of the worldwide tour is rumored to be in Buenos Aires, Argentina, […]

Financial analysts play close attention to politics in the countries they monitor — it's crucial that they keep track of potential policy changes coming down the pipe.

When the country you're looking at is Saudi Arabia, that's a different sort of challenge. There aren't any elections to keep track of, but there's constant turmoil in the country's monarchical system, which often looks more like medieval Europe than anything else.

Right now, there's a surge of interest in Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman — the 30-year old son of the current King — who has at least one team of analysts talking about Riyadh's "game of thrones."

Royal Bank of Canada's global head of commodity strategy, Helima Croft and her team lay out their concerns in a note published Friday:

Since Salman ascended to the throne in January, the outsized influence of his favorite son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), has reportedly been a primary driver of discontent within the royal family. The young prince, who is thought to be between the ages of 29 and 32, controls some of the most prized political real estate in the country despite having a shorter resume than many of his older relatives. Not only is MBS in the immediate line of succession as Deputy Crown Prince, he is the world’s youngest defense minister, Chair of the Council on Economic and Development Affairs, and Head of the Supreme Council for Saudi Aramco.

Croft is keen to note that a dramatic power struggle isn't RBC's base case, but tensions have risen to such a level that they're no longer able to rule it out. Mohammad bin Salman (referred to as MBS) has ruffled a lot of feathers during his sudden climb to the top. As defence minister, he also has significant responsibilities over the country's war in Yemen.

He's not next in line to the throne officially. Muhammad bin Nayef, the 79-year-old King's nephew, is Crown Prince, and the designated successor. A grandson of Ibn Saud, who founded the Kingdom had a series of letters published recently calling for all three of them to be replaced.

Croft notes that Saudi Kings have been assassinated as recently as the 1970s, so a violent succession isn't out of the question. Under normal times, discontent in the enormous royal family might be dismissed as gossip.

But that any regime change or instability could bring about a tremendous change in the global order when it comes to oil.

The oil price plunge that began in the second half of 2014 is a major economic event for Saudi Arabia — the International Monetary Fund has suggested that the country has about six years of fiscal buffers left if oil prices stay near where they are now.

The country is enormously reliant on oil for tax revenues. The fiscal buffer refers to the country's enormous currency reserves, which will quickly dwindle if prices don't rise again. That's not just an issue for the public finances — two-thirds of the country's men are employed by the government, and social stability is maintained in part through the generosity of the state.

But that's partly a conscious decision made in the Saudi corridors of power. OPEC, the cartel of oil-producing nations, agreed not to cut production in the face of slumping oil prices, and the overproduction has cut prices to less than half of what they were in the middle of last year.

That had a clear knock-on effect on the world's advanced economies, sending inflation to zero and below in the US, UK and the eurozone

The strategy's intention is to cripple the US oil boom, which has been gaining an increasing market share, to the extent that the country is now practically self-sufficient in terms of energy.

Here's what the RBC note says:

Depending on his path to power, a new monarch might feel the need to quickly generate additional revenue to fund popular infrastructure projects and social welfare programs, as well as boost the overall mood of the populace and the private sector, which depends heavily on government largesse. Market share might therefore take a back seat to maintaining public support in a power shift scenario.

That would be an enormous shift not just for Saudi Arabia or the region, but the world. The country produces about a third of OPEC's 30 million barrels per day, and other countries tend to fall in line when decisions are made in Riyadh.

UniPAY, an e-wallet in the country of Georgia, has partnered with Snapcard, the San Francisco, Calif.-based bitcoin payment processor and wallet, to offer customers the option of using cryptocurrency at e-commerce sites globally and to convert between local fiat currency and crypto. UniPAY allows users to use bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin. UniPAY will also begin offering merchants a bitcoin payment option. UniPAY is one of the largest payment service providers in Georgia processing payments for local mobile carriers, internet service providers, airlines, utility companies, and gaming sites. Georgia Citizens Gain Access To Global Economy Jack Jia, the head of international growth […]

UniPAY, an e-wallet in the country of Georgia, has partnered with Snapcard, the San Francisco, Calif.-based bitcoin payment processor and wallet, to offer customers the option of using cryptocurrency at e-commerce sites globally and to convert between local fiat currency and crypto. UniPAY allows users to use bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin. UniPAY will also begin offering merchants a bitcoin payment option. UniPAY is one of the largest payment service providers in Georgia processing payments for local mobile carriers, internet service providers, airlines, utility companies, and gaming sites. Georgia Citizens Gain Access To Global Economy Jack Jia, the head of international growth […]

UniPAY, an e-wallet in the country of Georgia, has partnered with Snapcard, the San Francisco, Calif.-based bitcoin payment processor and wallet, to offer customers the option of using cryptocurrency at e-commerce sites globally and to convert between local fiat currency and crypto. UniPAY allows users to use bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin. UniPAY will also begin offering merchants a bitcoin payment option. UniPAY is one of the largest payment service providers in Georgia processing payments for local mobile carriers, internet service providers, airlines, utility companies, and gaming sites. Georgia Citizens Gain Access To Global Economy Jack Jia, the head of international growth […]

The Bitstamp Price Index confirmed a new year-high price for Bitcoin at $334.05, this morning. The peak is yet another milestone for the cryptocurrency which has been on a steady upward trajectory predominantly since September. The year-high peak struck at 07:11 UTC and has since dropped to $322.780 at the time of publishing. For a live Bitcoin Price chart, click here.

The malware authors making up the cyber gang behind the intrusive Cryptowall 3.0 ransomware, a strain of malware, have raked in an estimated $325 million from hundreds of thousands of victims around the world by demanding ransom payments in Bitcoin. The ransomware has been active since January, 2015. A cybercriminal group that develops and deploys Cryptowall 3.0 may have gathered millions of dollars of ransom in Bitcoin in this past year alone, a comprehensive study points out. Cryptowall version 3.0 the latest variant of a ransomware that is among the most effective tools used by malicious hackers and attackers to monger […]

The cryptocurrency started Friday October 30 by setting a new 2015 high for its price, breaking past the $320 level for the first time all year.

The value of bitcoin plummeted to start the year, coming after a 2014 where the price of bitcoin plummeted. The cryptocurrency was trading at as much as $1,150 in early 2014.

In bitcoin's brief existence it has been hailed by investors including Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and simultaneously created concern surrounding the ease with which criminals can use the cryptcurrency.

Still, big investors are interested in the cryptocurrency. Entrepreneur Barry Silbert this week announced a partnership between his Digital Currency Group and investors including Bain Capital Ventures, MasterCard and others to support investment in bitcoin startups. Already, it has developed a portfolio of more than 50 companies.

Nick Szabo, who designed an early Bitcoin-like digital currency called "bit gold," made an appearance on Thursday at the D Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin Investor Conference 2015. Szabo, in his speech, made it clear he understands the uncertainty in the price of Bitcoin. That’s why he wants to bring the power of Bitcoin and the block chain to the world of traditional investments. “The current answer is colored coins,” Szabo told conference attendees. “However that does not trust minimize cash flows.” He believes such technology is the “next generation of putting assets on the block […]

Blacksburg, VA — Follow My Vote has announced that they have been accepted into the Alpha Program at Web Summit 2015 in Dublin, Ireland. The global tech conference is scheduled to take place from November 3-5. "It is an honor and privilege to have been recognized by the Web Summit ALPHA selection committee as being one of the most disruptive and scalable software development startups in the world," states Adam Kaleb Ernest, Co-Founder and CEO at Follow My Vote. Forbes has called Web Summit “The new hot ticket on the tech conference scene.” The summit, which started 5 years ago, […]

Lyn Ulbricht, the mother of Ross Ulbricht, the man convicted of running the online dark web marketplace Silk Road, has suffered a heart attack according to the Free Ross official Twitter account. Mrs Ulbricht has expressed shock and worry over the arrest of her child, Ross. She has been a tireless campaigner in her son’s case. Lyn suffered a heart attack. She is in hospital and she will be ok. She continues to make improvements every day, watch for recovery updates — Free_Ross (@Free_Ross) October 30, 2015 Despite the conviction, Ross Ulbricht enjoys myriad supporters, including many well-known celebrities, such […]

Payza was an early mover among "legitimate" money transfer services with regard to integrating Bitcoin payments, and as CCN reported about a year ago, one of the first to allow it both ways. You could deposit Bitcoin for sending payments and then receive payments in Bitcoin as well. The service appears to still be operational, but there's trouble in the waters for the London-based company. The DC US Attorney's office updated its site on the 21st of October with a notice stating that the company is now facing a criminal investigation. The notice didn't get too deep into the details […]

Karpeles is currently in custody for fraud and money-laundering allegations and will be held by Japanese police for further interrogation.

Over the past two months, the Karpeles investigation has developed into a national scandal, involving the Japanese government and various law enforcement agencies, due to the inaccurate reporting from both international and Japanese media networks including Yomiuri and MSN.

Since the beginning of the investigation, Microsoft news network MSN and a few other mainstream Japanese media outlets have misreported Karpeles as the “bitcoin CEO,” confusing viewers who are not fully aware of the situation.